Highway bill conferees began ironing out the differences between House and Senate passed bills last week, hoping to pass a bipartisan compromise this summer. Representatives passed highly partisan spending and spending cut packages as senators struggled to advance legislation to stop student loan rate hikes and to reauthorize export subsidies for industry. This week the House will debate a defense authorization while the Senate continues to grapple with last week’s agenda.

The Senate’s grind is complicated by primary election outcomes that make Republicans seek greater ideological division in order to preserve their electability in Republicans primaries. Last cycle they were motivated by the defeat of veteran Utah Sen. Robert Bennett; last week it was the primary defeat of one of Richard Lugar of Indiana. Lugar sought bipartisanship as a necessary means of governing and was defeated by Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock, who characterizes compromise as Democrats adopting Republican principles. His Democratic opponent Joe Donnelly plans to campaign on his work across the partisan aisle. Both campaigns will portray their opponent as the more dangerous choice; the winner will be determined by which candidate succeeds. That the outcome is now in question gives Democrats some hope to retaining of their Senate majority, as Lugar would have been a general election shoo-in.

(Facebook photo)

With six months remaining before Election Day, the presidential campaign is coming into clearer focus. The basic data indicates that President Barack Obama is barely eligible for reelection. With an approval rating of 48 percent, unemployment above 8 percent and just one-third of Americans viewing the nation as moving in the right direction, the electorate is ready for change. Should the election become a referendum on the President, he is likely to lose (the same is true for Congress). Like Indiana, for the President to prevail, he must make Mitt Romney the more dangerous choice.